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All Fours
All Fours ~ Miranda July In All Fours, Miranda July’s unnamed peri-menopausal protagonist decides that she will take a recent windfall and drive across the country alone rather than flying, because she wants to become the kind of person who does such things, and hopes that by changing her basic self, she will be able to recapture the ecstatic love she shared with her husband when their infant child was in the NICU seven years ago. Our protagonist, a semi-famous artist who creates art in several genres, makes her plans and starts out on her trip, but only gets about half an hour away from home before being waylaid by…
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Cool Bloggers Walking Club
Mostly pictures for Elisabeth’s Cool Bloggers Walking Club are beautiful, of nature, of walks with dogs and children and so on. Today we are keeping it real, and I’m sharing pictures from the suburbs, from my morning walk to a local grocery store to get some eggs and probiotics. This is our local BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station, which is about a block away from our house. Very convenient for Maya, who works in San Francisco 3 days a week, or when we want to go to the airport. If you look carefully in the lower(ish) left of the picture, you can see the mailbox, which is where I…
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Friday Randomness
Apparently I’m blogging every day in April. This was not intentional at first, but once I got to the middle of the month, I figured, ‘In for a Penny, In for a Pound’. Now that I’m near the end of the month, but not quite there, the suspense is growing. Will I make it? Will I find enough content? Time will tell. One thing I could do would be to NOT do Friday Randomness, and instead take each of these little tidbits and make each its own blogpost. Nah. I didn’t take any pictures of last Saturday’s protest, but it was well attended (between 1,700 and 2,000). I have clicked…
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On Unicorns
Last week I ranted a bit about how unicorns have horns, and do not have wings. I feel strongly about this. Both Maya and Suzanne mentioned the term ‘alicorn’ which I had never heard before, but which I like a lot more than lumping a singular horse god (Pegasus) into a mythical species. It would be like saying ‘a Poseidon’ is a species, or ‘a Zeus’. Anyway, I looked up alicorn, and found these admittedly pretty yet historically problematic examples. I’m working on opening my mind a smidge. I know, I said historically problematic about a mythical creature. I’m ridiculous. I love this statue, the ‘alicorn’ is beautiful and is…
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Birthday Girls
Today my mom would have been 83, had she not died too young at the age of 66 in 2008. Today my Great Aunt Flo would have been 101, had she not died at the ripe old age of 100 last year. This is my mom when she was a little girl, with her Shirley Temple curls in her red hair. And here she is in college. She went to UC Berkeley, though she dropped out for a while. After she married, had my brother (six days after getting married), had me, and got divorced (I think her divorce became final on my day of birth, but I’m not 100%…
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Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance ~ Alison Espach Sally and Kathy are teenaged sisters in small town Connecticut. Kathy is a few years older than Sally, she is finishing her Junior Year of High School while Sally is finishing up 7th grade. Both girls have been obsessed with Billy Barnes, graduating senior and basketball star, since he jumped off the school roof a few years prior. Eventually Kathy starts dating Billy, leaving Sally behind. In Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, Sally is telling Kathy the story of her life and everything that has transpired, from the vantage point of 15 years in the future. This is a story of profound…
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Money Monday
Kyria had a post last week where she discussed her budget and spending for the first quarter of the year, while she’s been traveling in Western Europe. She’s within a few dollars of her budget (or would be if she hadn’t had to buy a new phone and laptop, one time expenditures), and is doing well. She asked if people budget when they travel, and I said no, I spend what I spend, and she then asked if I budget in my day-to-day life. The answer again, no, not really. Then Elisabeth had a post about how she keeps her grocery bill under control. Which got me to thinking about…
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Playing with ChatGPT
The other day, a friend posted a ChatGPT generated picture of her horse as a human on Facebook. Immediately I wanted to see what Mulder would look like as a human, so I went to ChatGPT and tried to load a photo. You have to have an account (free). So I signed up for an account, but instead of loading a photo, I asked it to show me what a Keeshond would look like as a human. Chat asked me if I wanted male/female/androgynous, and I said androgynous. It asked for personality, and I said kind of loud. This is what I got. I love the grey hair, which matches…
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Three Days in June
Three Days in June ~ Anne Tyler Three Days in June is the story of Gail Baines, who is fired the day before her daughter’s wedding (or maybe she quits, it’s one of those conversations). Her ex-husband, Max, is in town for the wedding and shows up unannounced to stay with her, bringing a rescue cat that he hopes she will want to adopt. In the span of three days, secrets come out, new wounds are inflicted, old wounds are healed. Gail is the standard prickly character that you will find in an Anne Tyler novel. She has feelings and thoughts, she just doesn’t express them. When she sees her…
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Friday Randomness
In addition to many wonderful signs, I saw this wonderful FDT (Fuck Donald Trump) t-shirt at last week’s rally. So pretty, right? I also liked the ‘Turd Reich’ sign. This is not my photo, I took it from our congress member’s FB page. He comes to the rallies when he is in town. He’s in the center front of this photo, with his back to the camera. The rally was much smaller than the previous Saturday’s Hands Off rally, but that was to be expected. Still about 1,000 people came out. Tomorrow is more rallies, 2 around here, and I have to decide if I want go to both or…
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The Girl Who Was Taken
The Girl Who Was Taken ~ Charlie Donlea Megan and Nicole are two High School students, graduating students from different friend groups who disappear one night from the same party. Megan escapes their abductor 2 weeks later, but Nicole is gone. Gone gone. Nicole’s sister, Livia is a forensic pathology fellow working to become a coroner. A year after the abduction, a body is found in a lake that Livia feels must somehow be connected to her sister, and she works with Megan to try to solve the mystery. This book was recommended to me, and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it was pretty riveting,…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Spotted Photos – Yellow
Sculpture at top of this post: Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, The Love in My Heart – Yayoi Kusama When iHanna announced that the April theme for her Spotted Photo Challenge would be ‘Yellow’, I thought, oh, I don’t think I have many yellow photos, this is going to be quick. Wrong. I have a ton. You’re going to get photos of Maya, Mulder, France, food, and flowers. Maybe a few other things too. Ready? Here’s Maya at her first birthday party, held in a local park, where we had friends, family, pizza, and cake. It was a beautiful day. Here she is in Juneau, Alaska! We’re visiting my mom, my…
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Money Monday – Update
Update on my new PayPal Debit Card – Happily, I was right, you can select the same category for earnings every month. You have to wait until the first of the month, so I set a reminder on my phone for the first of every month, so I don’t forget. From April 1 to April 13, I spent $477.48 on groceries*, and I earned $23.87 in cash back. I’ve been thinking about the money that I earn, and decided that I would like to keep this money separate from other money. So I could leave it in PayPal, or I could put it in another account. I have a high…
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Dinner at Millennium
For Maya’s birthday, we went to dinner at her favorite restaurant, Millennium, which is a renowned vegan restaurant in Oakland. This is our third time there, though she has been more times with her friends. The food is elevated and elegant, the flavors complex. The atmosphere is casual. I recommend sitting outside on the covered patio, inside is quite loud. It was chilly when we were there, but they had heaters and blankets to keep you comfortable. Ready for some food pics? The menu on Fridays and Saturdays is a 4 course prix fixe. The first course is a light appetizer to share, then you choose the next three courses.…
